Monday December 4 2023
Sunak set to block 9pc BBC licence fee increase |
| The annual fee is due to jump by almost £15 to £173.30 in April, in what would be the biggest single increase for close to 40 years. However, the Telegraph understands that Downing Street and ministers are set to block the rise and force the BBC to accept a smaller amount instead. |
UK’s woke Left in toxic alliance with Hamas, says British-born Israeli politician |
| In an interview, Fleur Hassan-Nahoumalso branded the United Nations as “the worst” after its women’s group was accused of taking 57 days to condemn the “brutal attacks by Hamas” on Israel on Oct 7. |
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| Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, deputy mayor of Jerusalem, protests against UN Women in London on Sunday Credit: Jamie Lorriman |
New measures will slash net migration by 300,000, says Cleverly |
| A new package of measures to cut record net migration will see the number of people moving to the UK fall by 300,000, James Cleverly told MPs on Monday. The Home Secretary announced a five-point plan that included a ban on foreign care workers bringing dependants, a big increase in the salary required for skilled foreign workers to get a visa to £38,700, and the scrapping of companies being allowed to hire cut-price labour from overseas for roles where there is a shortage of workers. |
Tuesday December 5 2023
‘Cleverly’s migration politicking may be too little, too late’ |
| After the Home Secretary pledged to deliver the biggest ever cut in net migration yesterday, Associate Editor Camilla Tominey analyses the five-point plan put forward by the Conservative Party. Reducing legal migration by 300,000, she states, would still see a huge amount of visas issued (roughly equivalent to the population of Leeds every year) — will that be enough to stop the mass migration of voters away from the Conservatives? |
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Millions made shorting Israel by those with prior knowledge of Hamas attacks, claims reportTraders with potential links to Hamas put huge bets against the Israeli economy in the run-up to the October 7 attacks and could have made more than £79.3 million, a 60-page study has claimed. |
More 2019 Tory voters will back Reform than Labour at next election |
 More people who voted Conservative in 2019 plan to back Reform UK at the next general election than Labour, a poll has found. Just over half of those who backed the Tories under Boris Johnson in 2019 plan to do so again under Rishi Sunak, according to research from Redfield & Wilton Strategies. Fifteen per cent of 2019 Conservative voters plan to back Reform, which is to the Right of the Tories on issues including net zero and legal and illegal immigration. |
Labour warns new migration rules could lead to ‘increase in rushed marriages’Labour has warned that the Government’s new immigration rules could lead to a “big increase in rushed marriages” in the months before they take effect. The minimum income needed for foreign workers to bring a spouse or dependant into the UK on a family visa will rise from £18,600 to £38,700 next spring under plans announced on Monday by James Cleverly, the Home Secretary. |
Prince Harry: I was treated less favourably over police protection |
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| The Duke of Sussex has argued that he had been treated “less favourably” than others when he was denied the right to automatic police protection in the UK. The Duke on Tuesday said the Home Office committee that made the decision after he announced that he was stepping back from his role as a working royal, had “failed to treat (him) as it treated others”. |
When IDF troops laid siege to the Al-Shifa Hospital last month, Israel insisted the facility’s underground premises served as a command centre for Hamas and that their mission of eradicating Hamas will be accomplished once they capture it.
Two weeks after the hospital fell with little resistance, Hamas is still sending daily barrages of rockets towards the south and Tel Aviv.
Israeli forces setting up seawater pumps to flood Hamas tunnels |
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| Israeli troops have been pictured setting up pumps to flood Hamas tunnels with water. Long pipes can be seen running from the sea up the beach and into Gaza in images released by the Israeli Defence Forces. |
Wednesday December 6 2023
Ministers threaten to quit over Rwanda flights law |
| Rishi Sunak faces up to 10 ministers quitting if he uses emergency legislation to force through the Rwanda plan. The MPs are largely from the One Nation group of Conservatives. Charles Hymas reports that emergency legislation declaring Rwanda safe for asylum seekers was due to be presented to Parliament today, but is now thought to have been delayed.
The move comes after it was revealed yesterday that asylum seekers jailed for serious crimes in Rwanda would be sent back to the UK. Emergency laws to declare Rwanda safe for asylum seekers will be “immune” to court challenges, a Home Office minister has pledged. Chris Philp, the policing minister, said the Government would do “whatever it takes” to ensure the Rwanda Bill was “completely watertight” and “immune” to being struck down by the courts. |
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Robert Jenrick quits over Sunak’s ‘fatally flawed’ Rwanda Bill |
| Jenrick, the immigration minister, quit shortly after a warning from Suella Braverman that the Conservatives were heading for “electoral oblivion”. In an unsparing resignation letter, Mr Jenrick detailed how he did not want to become another politician that makes promises on immigration, but “does not keep them”.
Jenrick was initially seen as Sunak’s lieutenant in the Home Office, intended to be a moderating influence on Suella Braverman. Deputy Political Editor Daniel Martin reveals how he came to be just as hardline as the former home secretary. |
Rwanda says it would have quit deportation deal if UK ditched human rights lawsWithin two hours of the publication of the Rwanda Bill, the Rwandan government suggested it would have pulled out of the deal if Britain had opted out of international human rights laws. James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, admitted that he could not state that the Bill was compliant with Britain’s obligations under the ECHR. The Bill, however, does not give the Government powers to ignore the European Convention on Human Rights, which has brought criticism from Right-wing Conservatives. |
Boris Johnson swore on the Bible Wednesday morning and apologised to the families of Covid victims as he started a mammoth two days at the Inquiry.
Whitehall was not ready for the “disaster” of the coronavirus pandemic, Johnson told the Covid Inquiry as two days of evidence commenced.
Protesters had to be removed from the room as the former prime minister began with an apology to those who lost loved ones during the pandemic.
Emphasising that his government, scientists and the civil service had “underestimated” the disease, Johnson said: “The concept of a pandemic did not necessarily imply to the Whitehall mind the kind of utter disaster that Covid was to become.
Boris Johnson fought back tears as he cast his mind back to 2020 and the onset of the virus when giving evidence to the Covid Inquiry.
The former prime minister also apologised for remarks he had scribbled in notes about long Covid, in which he called the condition “bol—–” and compared it to Gulf War Syndrome.
Boris Johnson has said that expletive-ridden WhatsApps were a “creatively useful” tool at the height of the Covid pandemic as he denied deleting thousands of messages. The former prime minister said that similarly “fruity” exchanges of views would have happened face to face during the Thatcher and Blair administrations before the era of text messaging.
Why Donald Trump is the real winner of the fourth Republican primary debate |
| Nikki Haley mocked her rivals for being “jealous” of her rising profile at the final GOP debate before the Iowa caucuses, but Deputy US Editor Rozina Sabur argues that the real victor was the man who was not there.
Mr DeSantis, the Florida governor, questioned Ms Haley’s conservative credentials as he highlighted the funding she has received from a Democratic megadonor and attacked her position on transgender issues. Mr DeSantis said there were lessons to be learned from across the Atlantic. “Europe is committing suicide with mass migration,” he said. |
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| Mr Ramaswamy called Ms Haley ‘corrupt’ Credit: Reuters |
Thursday December 7 2023
Sunak suggests critics are unserious about stopping the boats
Sunak struck a defiant tone in a Downing Street press conference as he suggested critics of his plan, including Jenrick and his former home secretary Suella Braverman, were not actually serious about stopping the boats.
Insisting the Rwandan government would collapse the migration partnership if he went any further, the Prime Minister said: “There’s no point having a piece of legislation that means we can’t actually send anyone anywhere.
“When we’re talking about an inch of difference. It’s pretty clear that what we’re doing is not only the right approach, it’s the only approach. I’m determined to fix this problem and the people who want to do something different clearly don’t.”
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On Wednesday when Vladimir Putin was welcomed with all the trappings of a world leader, rather than as the internationally wanted war criminal he is.
Putin, a pariah since his unlawful invasion of Ukraine, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.
But the UAE, which is studiously neutral over the invasion, has never signed the treaty which would oblige it to arrest Putin and deport him to The Hague for trial.
Putin was greeted with a warm handshake rather than the handcuffs that await him in large swathes of the rest of the world.
After the UAE, Putin travelled to Saudi Arabia to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Hacking | Russia’s security services have obtained private conversations of politicians and civil servants as part of “sustained” attempts to interfere in British politics, a minister has revealed.
- Pictured | IDF strip Palestinian men and parade them through square once used by Hamas
Dozens of Palestinian men captured by the Israeli military were stripped to their underwear and paraded around a central square in Gaza where Hamas fighters used to hold rallies.Footage published by Israeli media showed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) rounding up several dozen Palestinians who allegedly surrendered in the Jabaliya refugee camp and other areas in the north.The undressed young men were seen in the back of a military truck, and later sitting on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs. Shoes were seen strewn nearby on what Israeli media identified as Palestine Square in Gaza City.
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IDF strip Palestinian men and parade them through square once used by Hamas
Friday December 8 2023
Rwanda Commons defeat looms for Sunak |
| With the working Tory majority in the Commons now just 56, only 29 Tory rebels are needed to force a defeat on the Government. Scores of Conservative MPs, including Liz Truss and Suella Braverman, are reportedly considering rebelling against the Bill. |
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Tory MPs from both centrist and Right-wing factions are already growing worried about his Rwanda Bill, albeit for very different reasons.
A senior MP on the moderate wing of the party says: “I don’t think the legislation is acceptable as it is. I want to support Rishi. I don’t like division.
“But my worry about it is that, essentially, we once again fold for party interests… A lot of us are all incredibly uncomfortable with and unhappy about the legislation.”
Cyber attack | The former head of MI6 and a Cabinet minister had their emails stolen by Russian intelligence as part of a Kremlin campaign to undermine British democracy, it has emerged.
The former prime minister urged on December 7, Baroness Hallett, who chairs the Covid inquiry, to give a “prod to the world to get the answer” about the genesis of the virus. It comes after Michael Gove suggested last week that Covid could be man-made.
Margaret Thatcher did terrible things, insists Keir Starmer after backlash to tribute |
| Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he is not a fan of Margaret Thatcher as he faced a backlash from his own MPs for praising the Iron Lady. The Labour leader claimed the former prime minister did “terrible things” which he “profoundly disagrees with” as he sought to placate backbenchers angered by his tribute to her legacy. Sir Keir caused a stir by commending Thatcher for enacting “meaningful change” and “setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism” in an article for The Telegraph. |
Saturday December 9 2023
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| Boris Johnson has been told to stop wearing a Grimsby Town FC hat by residents who say he is bringing the area into “serious disrepute” Credit: REUTERS |
- Israel at war | US blocks UAE-backed deal for Gaza ceasefire
The United States blocked a UAE-backed demand for a ceasefire on Friday as fighting further intensified inside Gaza.Washington vetoed a vote on a UN Security Council resolution, submitted by Abu Dhabi and backed by Arab leaders pushing to halt the invasion.“The undeniable reality is if Israel laid down its arms today, Hamas would continue to hold hostages,” Robert Wood, the US deputy ambassador to the UN, said ahead of the vote.
“That is not a threat that any of our governments would continue to allow,” he added.
Sunday December 10 2023
A “star chamber” of Conservative lawyers has concluded that Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation plans are not fit for purpose. Former home secretary Suella Braverman shares her concerns about radicalisation in schools and normalisation of anti-Semitism.
- Rwanda flights | Legislation not ‘watertight’ enough, say lawyers
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London on the brink: a 1970s New York-style fate is just a step away |
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Comment and analysis
- Lucy Burton | Britain’s crumbling schools are to blame for the dumbing down of workplace leadership
- Sunak | PM suffers first Commons defeat over infected blood payouts
- Matthew Lynn | Lockdown trashed Britain’s economy – not Brexit
- Dogs | XL bully owners race to send dogs to Scotland ahead of ban
- Europe | France to trial mandatory school uniforms
- David Axe | Manila is pushing back against China’s attempt to snatch its waters
- Johnny Mercer | Sunak’s plan to stop the boats is ‘beginning to work’
- Ryan O’Neal | Love Story star and Oscar nominee dies aged 82
- Letters | The Tories can’t afford to delay their migration reforms until the spring
Some View on the World 
4 thoughts on “In the news the Second week of December 2023”